Bug Blog
Pollen Power
Female Valley carpenter bees are solid black--except when they're foraging around passion flowers. Then they're black and yellow--the yellow being the color of the pollen transferred to their...
A Valley carpenter bee receives a brush of pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Check out the yellow pollen on this Valley carpenter bee's thorax. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bees frequent the passion flowers, too. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
May Berenbaum: An Amazing Scientist, Speaker and Author--And She's Coming to UC Davis
Mark your calendars if you want to hear about bees, honey laundering, sex and the single parsnip! All in a two-day period... Internationally recognized entomologist May Berenbaum, professor and...
May Berenbaum will deliver two seminars at UC Davis May 20-21.
Bee Ballet Over Matilija Poppy
Whenever you look at the Matilija poppy, you think of a fried egg. White, crepelike flowers (the egg whites) circle a cluster of gold stamens (the yolk). Sunny-side up! Native to southern...
A bee ballet over a Matilija poppy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Matched pair of foragers. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee going for the gold. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Here the Matilija poppy looks like a sombrero. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Made for Each Other
What a perfect match when a Gulf Fritillary butterfly touches down on a blanket flower. They're both reddish-orange and showy. Last weekend we spotted a Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis...
Gulf Fritillary touches down on a blanket flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Getting ready for takeoff. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
And away it goes! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Countdown in the Good Life Garden
Did you count pollinators on Thursday, May 8? That was "Be a Scientist Day," sponsored by the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources' Day of Science and Service to commemorate 100 years of...
Butterfly expert Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, talks pollinators with Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee foraging on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) on catmint. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Skipper butterfly on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)